IndyCar: Hinchcliffe fastest in first Long Beach practice

James Hinchcliffe opened this weekend's Verizon IndyCar Series event at Long Beach by setting the fastest time in the first practice session.

Hinchcliffe went to the top with a 1m09.8110s lap with nine minutes of the 45-minute session remaining, and his time remained unbeaten. Helio Castroneves, who set his best time just moments after the Canadian driver, came closest, although his effort was still 0.1795s shy.

Prior to Hinchcliffe entering the picture, the pacesetter during the middle phase of the session was Josef Newgarden. His participation was cut short when he understeered into the Turn 8 barriers, prompting a 10-minute stoppage, but his lap time was still good enough to remain fifth-fastest behind Justin Wilson and Ryan Hunter-Reay at the checkered flag.

Jack Hawksworth continued his encouraging start to his IndyCar career by posting the seventh-best time to put himself just behind Will Power, while Juan Pablo Montoya was comfortably inside the top 10 for much of the session before being shuffled back to 15th towards the end.

Oriol Servia, making his first appearance of the season in the second Rahal Letterman Lanigan entry, finished up in 16th place.